By far the most common apparatus used by professional carpet cleaners is the carpet cleaning wand. The wand is a hand-held device designed to be pushed and dragged across carpet. At the forward portion of the wand where it engages the carpet is formed a vacuum head. This vacuum head is provided with a high powered suction force created by an external air pump which is connected to the wand by a vacuum line. Behind the vacuum head is a dispenser nozzle. In operation, hot water, hot water with cleaning solution, or hot water with rinse solution are sprayed onto the carpet from the nozzle as the wand is pushed forward and then fluid and debris freed by the fluid are removed from the carpet as the vacuum head is pulled back. To fully wet and clean, the wand is usually moved forward and back twice for each area of carpet. In present methods, hot water or hot water and solution are pumped to the wand through a hot water line from a truck or similar station where hot water and fluid pressure are generated. Cleaning or rinsing solutions are mixed with the hot water either prior to the pump or in the hot water line between the pump and the wand.
In most applications, only hot water with cleaning solution is applied to the carpet. Prior to the advent of stain resistant and soil retardant carpets, no rinse step was used because the added effort and expense associated with using a second solution or pure hot water rinse made such a step uneconomical. When cleaning stain resistant carpets, however, manufactures of these carpets have stated that the use of a single cleaning step without a subsequent rinse step is inadequate. Residue of the cleaning solution left on the carpet fibers after vacuuming negates the stain resistant and soil retardant properties of the carpet. It is therefore desirable to apply a rinsing solution or pure hot water step after the cleaning solution step.
Using the conventional carpet cleaning apparatus, the addition of a rinse step effectively doubles the time, effort, and expense required to clean a carpet. The entire carpet is first cleaned in the manner described above, followed by a rinsing of the entire carpet. Because cleaning or rinsing solution is mixed with the hot water in the line or before the pump, it is impractical to alternate between cleaning solution and rinsing solution or between cleaning solution and pure hot water.
A second method has been developed which uses a hand-held cleaning solution sprayer. A solution is first sprayed onto the carpet (without vacuum), followed by rinsing and vacuuming with the wand. This method reduces the cleaning step so that it is economically feasible to clean and rinse. But, this method still requires two separate passes (one to spray and one to rinse). Additionally, two separate implements (the sprayer and the wand) are required and there is the danger of overwetting the carpet with the sprayer because the user cannot visually control the amount of the cleaner.
Therefore, there exists a need for a wand-type apparatus and a method for cleaning and rinsing carpets which is effective, efficient and cost-effective.